James J. McCaffrey, 79, Co-Founder of Top New York Ad Agency

James John McCaffrey, the co-founder of a New York advertising agency known for campaigns of understated elegance, died on Saturday at a hospital in Bangor, Me. He was 79 and lived in Blue Hill, Me., after residing several years in Castine, Me.

The cause was complications from a stroke he suffered last month on a fishing trip to Canada, his family said.

Mr. McCaffrey crowned his career in 1962 when he teamed with another leading executive, David B. McCall, and bought the firm of LaRoche & Company, turning it into McCaffrey & McCall. The venture paid off, attracting top accounts like Mercedes and Tiffany.

Over his years in advertising, Mr. McCaffrey himself handled many such household names. Among them were Rolls-Royce, J. C. Penney, Bacardi rum, Hathaway shirts, Helena Rubinstein, Pepperidge Farm, Norelco and ABC Television.

A native New Yorker, Mr. McCaffrey was educated at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and Princeton University. At 19, as an undergraduate soccer star, he contracted polio and needed leg braces and canes to move about.

He graduated with honors in 1944 and was headed for law school when he took a summer job in the mail room of Young & Rubicam. It was one of the world's biggest advertising agencies and, after having tasted the business, he stayed.

He worked his way up to become an account executive, first at Young & Rubicam and then at Ogilvy Benson & Mather, where he met Mr. McCall. The two bought a substantial stake in LaRoche and took the plunge, and a cut in income, to make the firm their own. Mr. McCaffrey served as chairman until he retired in 1973 and moved to a farm in Castine. Twenty years later, the firm joined the ranks of small-to-midsize agencies to be absorbed by worldwide companies, and by 1995 even its name had disappeared.

In Maine, Mr. McCaffrey delved into community affairs and local politics. In 1980, he joined with an editor, Hugh W. Bowden, to found a regional weekly newspaper, The Castine Patriot, to which he contributed editorials.

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Mr. McCaffrey is survived by his wife of 55 years, Virginia Given McCaffrey, who is known as Geegee; a daughter, Anne M. Rathmell of Belfast, Me., who is known as Nancy; a sister, Anne J. McBrian of Appleton, Me.; and three granddaughters.

Mr. McCall and his wife, Joan Mills McCall, died in a car accident while on an aid mission in Albania in 1999. He was 71, a patron of the arts and an advocate for refugees.

In advertising, he and Mr. McCaffrey did not shrink from hot topics, an uncommon trait in their profession. Their agency, for instance, coordinated an anti-Vietnam War campaign, ''Unsell the War,'' that drew volunteers from the industry.

When Mr. McCaffrey stepped down as chairman and chief executive at age 50, he had just ended a year as president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

''I made up my mind 15 years ago,'' he said of retiring, going on to explain, ''My father died at 54, and he was always saying to my mother, 'Let's do it next year.' ''

No more advertising, he said, but there would be a lot of fly fishing and duck hunting.